Beauty is only skin deep…yeah, yeah, yeah…

What in the world is going on?? I thought I had seen it all until I woke up this morning and my Facebook timeline was flooded with the most insane thing ever…the #kyliejennerlipchallenge So I went on a mad search to find out what this was exactly. Apparently Kylie Jenner had some work done on her lips to make them a little puffier than what she was born with giving her the infamous ‘pouty mouth’

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And of course like any other celebrity, all of these kids are going crazy trying to look like her.

The challenge is you are supposed to suck or insert your lips into a bottle or shot glass (see my screenshot below) holding them in there for at least two minutes until your lips are ‘puffy’ thus giving you the look of Kylie Jenner.

Now here’s where things go wrong…once you pull that bottle from your lips, you don’t look like Kylie in any way, you in fact look like a baboons a**!!! You have an ugly purple ring around your lips and your lips are red and swollen!! Not only will this bruise last for at least a few hours, if not more, you may have possibly damaged blood vessels in your lips! Why oh why would you want to go around looking like this??? Do you not see how foolish this is??

While most of these kids think it’s all fun and games, there are others who are not happy with themselves once this challenge is over saying things like “I screwed up the challenge”, “OMG my lips are bruised 🙁 :(“, and a host of other negative reactions to how they look once the challenge is over. I saw some comments when viewing these videos on YouTube where a few of the girls even stayed home from school because they looked hideous after participating in said challenge. As you can see in one of the videos the girls lips were bleeding once she was done with this foolishness. I also saw a video where this guy talks about one girl who did this challenge on her vajayjay (seriously search Instagram for the challenge and you will see the pic-gross.com). All I could do was shake my head! I have no understanding as to why anyone would want to alter their body to look like someone else. Yeah I understand we all want to look a certain way and feel good about ourselves but when doing so causes bodily harm and long lasting effects of injury it clearly can’t be good.

Laughing while bleeding smh this generation is so lost!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZRqFccKIqk

This girl said she’s never doing this again!

Who’s to blame here? Is it Kylie? Is it these kids parents? Is it the media? I guess in some way we all are to blame or are we? When you look in the mirror what do you see? How do you validate yourself and your children? Are you making healthy choices when it comes to changing your looks? Do you explain to your children how important it is to be an individual and embrace the God given beauty they possess?

I hope that one day we realize that we are ALL beautiful in our own right. I mean come on now, how boring would this world be if we all looked the same?? The beauty of this world IS the differences we all possess. And it’s far time that we embrace those differences and love the skin we’re in!! I may not be 100% satisfied with my outward appearance but I bet you one thing I will not do anything to my body that will hurt me in the long run!

I urge and encourage all of us to stop for a minute and grab a mirror (I’ll wait 🙂 ), ok now look at yourself and say these words. “You are beautiful!” and then smile at yourself. I want you to do this at least once everyday and I promise you that you will begin to feel better about yourself instantly! And another thing STOP DOING THESE STUPID CHALLENGES!!!!!

Excuse me for yelling, but seriously please find something more productive to do with your time like read a book, learn a new vocabulary word, take a walk for God’s sake, anything other than hopping on the crazy bandwagon that some fool created to in order to cause a social media frenzy!

Tanisha Renee Gladney, aka Tee Renee, a native of Oakland, CA, mother of three handsome boys, and self-proclaimed "Jill of All Trades", fell in love with writing and telling stories as a little girl. Her mother says that ever since she could talk, Tee Renee would give you every detail of the story instead of just giving you the highlights like most people do. Her first try at public writing was a poem she wrote for a Black History program in high school and she has been hooked ever since. Through the years Tee Renee has been involved in writing by helping people with various writing projects, lending her literary skills to Swag Magazine CA as a contributing writer, interviewer and editor, and blogging on a variety of subjects. After years of keeping ideas, story lines and characters in her head and heart, Tee Renee has finally decided to share this gift with the world. As an avid reader herself, she thrives for the kind of story that makes you feel like you are right there with the characters and that is exactly the kind of feeling she intends to give to her readers through her projects. A brand new author signed to KPG, she is extremely excited about her debut novel ‘Neighborhood Kandii’. In her spare time Tee Renee enjoys cuddling up with a good book, watching movies, and spending time with her loved ones. Her life’s mantra is ‘To love hard, live everyday as if it was your last, and laugh until you can no longer breathe’!